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CAIRO — After a year of unending turmoil and military rule, Egypt faces an acute financial crisis that could undermine its political transition and pose a defining challenge to Islamists now coming to power.

With mounting debts, negligible economic growth and dwindling foreign reserves, the military rulers and the new Islamist-led Parliament now confront some difficult choices, beginning with an all but inevitable further devaluation of Egypt’s currency that could send the prices of food and other goods soaring.

The government may also soon be forced to overhaul the vast system of energy subsidies that now account for a fifth of government spending. Increases in food prices and reductions of subsidies have provoked riots here in the past....

And what has happened over these past 12 months, as you can see behind me what’s happening now, is that the revolution has really progressed from this uprising against the Mubarak regime into a deeper struggle that is targeting the real backbone of modern autocracy in Egypt, which is the military, the regime that has ruled Egypt for the past 60 years, that enjoys a special political and economic autonomy outside of any kind of civilian control. And this is the regime that SCAF embodies. And so, the revolution has really become much more radical, I think, in targeting that aspect of Egyptian autocracy....

The GOP Brotherhood of EgyptDemonized in the U.S. as radical terrorists, Egypt's Islamists are actually led by free-market businessmen

While Western alarmists often depict Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood as a shadowy organization with terrorist ties, the Brotherhood’s ideology actually has more in common with America’s Republican Party than with al-Qaida. Few Americans know it but the Brotherhood is a free-market party led by wealthy businessmen whose economic agenda embraces privatization and foreign investment while spurning labor unions and the redistribution of wealth. Like the Republicans in the U.S., the financial interests of the party’s leadership of businessmen and professionals diverge sharply from those of its poor, socially conservative followers....

"AP reported that US General Martin Dempsey has met directly with the military leaders of Egypt to discuss an Egyptian 'crackdown on Western-funded pro-democracy groups.' Threatened with a cut-off from US aid, the Egyptian military is expected to abandon their campaign against US ' NGOs'.."

"Cairo is set to begin the trial of dozens of NGO activists including 19 Americans charged with illegal use of foreign funds to foment unrest in the post-Mubarak Egypt. Press TV has conducted an interview with Edward Spannaus, editor of the Executive Intelligence Review, to share his opinion on this issue.."

"The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's top political force, has put up its back-up candidate, just a day before the doors of the Electoral Commission closed. They fear their first pick may be disqualified on legal grounds. Former Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman is also running.."

"...In December, Egyptian prosecutors and police raided 17 offices of 10 groups identifying themselves as 'pro-democracy' NGOs, incuding 4 US based agencies. The result has been an almost complete failure by the Western press to investigate at all the history of the organisations involved or the validity of the charges being brought against them. The term 'NGO' is used deliberately to create an illusion of innocent philanthropic activity.."

'US Adopts Divide and Rule Policy on Egypt' (and vid)
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/235568.html
"Dramatic final minutes at presidential candidacy registration in Egypt as Omar Suleiman presented himself as a candidate for the upcoming Egyptian election.."

"Tens of thousands of Egyptians have taken to the streets across the country to protest against the life sentence issued for Hosni Mubarak in his trial, which they say is too lenient. 'Down with military rule!', the protesters chanted in Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square on Saturday.."

"On 4 June 2012, we learn of 'vote rigging' in the first round of the presidential election in Egypt. A key allegation is that the ballots of 1.5 million voters were not counted. Making the allegations are third placed Hemdeen Sabahy, a nationalist who wants to help the poor and fourth placeed Abdel Moneim Foutah, who says 911 was an inside job..."

"The Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt has announced that Egypt's lower House of Parliament must be dissolved following a court verdict which determined a hastily considered election law was illegal. The court ruling means new elections will have to be held. Now that the law has been struck down, former Prime Minister Shafiq will face off against Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in two days time.."

"Thousands of people have taken to the streets in the Egyptian city of Alexandria to protest against the country's Supreme Constitutional Court's recent rulings which dissolved the country's parliament and allowed Mubarak-era Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq to run for president..."

"The Egyptian military is planning to complete its coup against the revolution by preparing to announce former Premier Ahmed Shafiq as the winner of the presidential elections, reports say. The reports say that the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has already made the necessary arrangements with the US to complete its planned coup by placing Shafiq ahead of the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi in the race.."

"Do the CIA and Mossad want the Muslim Brotherhood candidate, or the Mubarak ally, to win the Presidential elections in Egypt? According to the Economist, which we presume is the voice of Israel of the Pentagon, 'A Muslim Brother is better than a Mubarak crony.."

"The Muslim Brotherhood declares its candidate, Mohamed Morsi, has won Egypt's presidential run-off. The victory over Mubarak's former prime minister, Ahmed Shafik, is claimed ahead of the official announcement of the ballot results on Thursday. The party claims to have won 52.5 percent of votes cast, based on a count of 97.6 percent of the country's 13,100 polling stations. Khaled Qazzaz, a MB official, said Shafik had 47.5 percent of the votes counted.."

"Egypt's ruling junta has issued a new constitutional declaration, reassuming legislative powers after the country's constitutional court dissolved the elected parliament. Press TV has conducted an interview with Clovis Maksoud, former Arab League Ambassador to the UN, from Washington to further discuss the issue..."

"Egypt's revolutionary political action group of April 6 Youth Movement has warned of a civil war if Mubarak era Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq is offically declared the winner of the country's run-off presidential elections. No specific date has been given for the announcement of the results, which were initially expected on Thursday.."

"An Egyptian NGO known as Judges for Egypt, says that Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi has won the country's presidential run-off election. Both candidates in Egypt's presidential election are claiming victory." Experts are interviewed.

I found this analysis of the recent Egyptian "soft coup" enlightening and depressing. Well worth the read. I wish this was just a joke in the Onion.

Quote:

Many political figures including former presidential candidate Abol Fotouh called SCAF’s blatant acts “a soft military coup d’état.” Here are a few examples of the power grab measures taken by SCAF in a matter of days:

1) On June 14, SCAF sent the army to occupy the parliamentary building in anticipation of the dissolution of parliament by the High Court. Within days it issued its own decree to dissolve the parliament and reclaimed all legislative powers to itself. Typically when the parliament is dissolved, the president would be granted temporary legislative powers, to be reviewed later by the parliament when it is reconstituted.

2) On the same day the Justice Minister made a mockery of the repealed martial laws by effectively restoring the emergency laws and empowering the military and security agencies to arrest and detain anyone indefinitely, as well as to try in military courts any person deemed a threat to public order.

3) Within two hours of the closing of the polls on June 17, SCAF unilaterally issued a sweeping amended constitutional declaration that effectively transferred much of the presidential powers to itself. For example, it stripped the president of his role as commander-in-chief of the armed forces and gave it to SCAF’s top general, Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi. It prevented the president from promoting or dismissing any military personnel. It also granted itself veto power over any decision by the president related to any military matter including the declaration of war or any domestic use of the armed forces.

Now instead of the military working under the country’s president, the new declaration places the democratically elected president under the thumb of the military. It must be noted that such incredible measures are not dissimilar to the infamous and disastrous 1997 Turkish military coup d’état against the late Prime Minister Necmttin Erbakan.

4) SCAF stripped the president and the executive branch from any matters related to the state budget. It even declared its own budget secret and not subject to any accountability while providing itself total immunity.

5) Further, SCAF imposed its will on the new president by effectively retaining for itself the appointment of the most senior cabinet positions such as defense, foreign, and interior ministries, police, finance, justice, and intelligence.

6) SCAF also started the process of dissolving the one-hundred member constitution-writing committee, appointed delicately by the parliament last week from across all the spectrum of Egyptian political and civil society. In the new constitutional declaration, SCAF gave itself the right to reappoint the one-hundred committee members in a direct violation of the constitutional amendments passed by the people in the March 2011 referendum.

Moreover, if that committee refused to give the military its coveted special status in the new constitution, SCAF claimed a veto power over any articles written in the draft. If the committee then overrides SCAF’s veto, the declaration empowers Mubarak’s appointed judges in the High Court to decide the dispute between the two parties, in an incredible attempt to impose the military’s dictates on the country.

7) One day after the elections, as it became apparent that SCAF’s candidate was defeated, SCAF issued another decree that revived the National Defense Council (NDC), a body that has been dormant since the late 1980s. The function of this council is to make decisions on all strategic, defense, and national security matters. In another affront to the first-ever civilian (not to mention democratically elected) president, the NDC’s members comprise eleven generals (all from SCAF) and only five civilians, including the president. It decides all matters by a majority vote, thus tying the hands of the president regardless of where he stands on a particular issue.

8) Not content with its sweeping power grab, SCAF’s head, Tantawi, then issued another decree appointing one of his assistants, another military general, as the chief of staff of the new elected president to act as the eyes and ears of SCAF over the new president before he even took office. In the eyes of the military the new (read puppet) president would not even be allowed to appoint his own chief of staff.

As expected this wholesale usurpation of power by the military was universally condemned not only by the new elected president, the MB, and the rest of the revolutionary groups, but also by most civil society groups and public figures. Meanwhile, counting on a business as usual with the MB, SCAF has quietly started another tactic to pressure the MB into submission. It revived a court case seeking the dissolution of the MB, declaring it an illegal group and confiscating its assets. A decision on the matter is expected soon.

"Everybody knows by now why we are stuck in Palestine. When God instructed Moses to plead with Pharaoh to let his people go, Moses told hm that he was unfit for the job because, 'I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue' (Exodus 4:10). Actually in the Hebrew original Moses told God that he was 'heavy of the mouth and heavy of the tongue.'

He should have told him that he was also heavy of the ears. So when God told him to take his people to Canada, he took his people to Canaan, spending the prescribed 40 years - just long enough to reach Vancouver - wandering hither and thither in the Sinai desert. So here we are, in Canaan surrounded by Muslims..."

"Egyptian president-elect Mohamed Morsi, the first Islamist head of state in the Arab world's most populous nation has delivered an encouraging speech stating that under his rule Christians and Muslims will unite and make Egypt proud and great again. Morsi promised a moderate, modern Islamist agenda to steer Egypt into a new democratic era.."

"Egypt's highest court has overturned Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi's decree reinstating the North African country's parliament. The move to reinstate the parliament is the first showdown between Morsi and the country's powerful military.."